Well, the Pope can command all the media attention he wants and make sure the sounds bites about his support for a Palestinian state are well-heard in English, but the until the facts on the ground change, why bother?

Israel still maintains its blockade of Gaza—sorry, a "partial" blockade that does about as much damage as a full one but the niceties are there to assure everyone of something. Gaza itself is still in smoldering ruins. In Jerusalem, the new right-wing government has decided to make its occupation of the eastern half of the city permanent by creating parks. How quaint. We can still together for lunch except you have a capital and I don't.

And the Pope can say whatever he wants about justice and a lasting peace, but he hasn't met with any victims of Israeli oppression, instead opting for a photo op with Noam Shalit, the father of Israeli soldier Gad Shalit, held by Hamas. By the way, wasn't Operation Lead-Down-Your-Throat supposed to free him, or at least make it possible to wrest him away from Hamas at the bargaining table? Yet another failure of that ridiculous, criminal "war" in Gaza.

Now I know that Stalin once famously asked, "The Pope! How many divisions does he have?" or something close to that, but we know of the power and influence of the Vatican. However, until the Holy See does something concrete about contributing to the creation of a (bifurcated) Palestinian state, what is the purpose of making your support known other than for propaganda purposes? I see no plan offered by Rome, no incentives, and certainly no strong criticism of Israel. Instead, there's the obligatory trip to Yad Vashem, a lot of somber stares and putting one more piece of litter in the Wailing Wall.

All this may be a propaganda win for the Vatican, but it will amount to nothing for the Palestinians.

So, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Washington to meet President Barack Obama to "discuss" the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. About the need for peace. About making hard decisions. About being at a crossroads.

Please, spare me.

Until the American government decides to let its sac out of Israel's purse, we will wind up with yet another administration that accomplishes nothing. Another foreign policy failure that lets the Israelis get away with everything and the Palestinians get nothing.

Obama can talk all he wants: what's needed is action. He can call for an end to the endless colonization of Palestinian land but unless he's prepared to back that up with something concrete, why bother making a speech? He and Netanyahu can praise each other with all sorts of mindless bullshit, but it will be just that, bullshit, unless the Obama administration can accomplish something.

Netanyahu doesn't support a two-state solution: what a surprise. Avigdor Lieberman makes a rather clandestine trip to Europe because calling for Israeli Arabs to swear an oath of loyalty makes for bad PR with all those occidental leaders. The Israeli government continues to cry about Iran's warlike intentions hoping everyone forgets Gaza. Meanwhile, as I've stated, settlements continue, more land is taken and more platitudes about the need for peace. And more Palestinians continue to get humiliated on a daily basis as their homes are destroyed.

Yes, it's too early to criticize, but really, given the history of successive American governments and their failure to deal evenly and fairly, why should anyone believe that anything has changed? Cynical? No, realistic.

So, let the dance continue.

If there is one thing I have learned about our Media Glitterati, it's this: their job is to protect Republicans and hound Democrats.

Take this example: Newt Gingrich, leader of the Contract on America in the 1990s and one of President Clinton's determined enemies, is charging that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should resign because of "what she knew and when she knew it" regarding torture memos.

Never mind that this is the same man who was driven from office some time ago, AND was having an affair while roundly pursuing President Clinton for his extramarital dalliance. Right now, he's treated as though he is a very serious politico with ageless wisdom to which we should listen with rapt attention. And you know what? It seems to work.

Why should anyone care what New Gingrich thinks? And more to the point, if Nancy Pelosi is lying about what she knew and when she knew it, let's ask how many soldiers were killed becasue of it: zero. Now, let's compare her alleged lies with the proven lies of Bush and Cheney and ask the same question: over 4,000 soldiers have died because their damnable deceit.

But Nancy Pelosi should resign. Yes, we must stop this war criminal in her tracks.

Our hapless media fucks haven't made this connection at all, and no one seems to be questioning this in general in the mainstream press. Why? I already told you: it's the job of the press to run interference for Republicans, even adulterous ones, but they will pile on the pressure, innuendo and witch-hunting onto the Democrats to prove their case. And why should it be otherwise? For eight years, we had one liar after another in the Bush White House and the media reported these "untruths" without a whiff of dissent. Get a Democrat on camera and the investimagatin' never stops.

Of course, it doesn't help that Democrats are still so fundamentally weak when playing this game. Maybe that's why Dick Cheney went on his "We're All Gonna Die!" tour to bring back those misty memories of Democrats on the defensive. It seem to work just like old times.

Sonia Sotomayor.

I'm lovin' this.

I don't know anything about this lady; I don't know her politics, her life story, her philosophy, nothing.

But anyone who can drive the Republicans to squirm even more gets a plus in my book.

Amazing though, to see how the Media Glitterati are quick to give Republicans yet another microphone where they can mouth off the standard bullshit about checking her record and looking forward to reviewing her nomination.

Did I say this was all bullshit?

Republican Arizona senators Jon Kyle and John McCain have said as much, but that's all bullshit because they voted against her confirmation way back when. So what's changed? Nothing, but in the spirit of Undiminished Assholery, these two jerks will pretend to be thoughtfully reviewing Ms. Sotomayor, when the reality is, they will vote against her. A bit of a tricky dance for them both, since they "represent" a state with a lot of Hispanics.

Oh, there's the ethnic-identity thing, a truly hated concept among the right-wing. This is the real meaning behind asshole Newt "The Adulterer" Gingrich who's already called this woman (someone he's never met, but since when did that ever stop Republicans?) a "racist." It's all coded language: he wants to scream "affirmative action" which for the right-wing is a euphemism for "nigger" and "spic" and everybody with a pulse knows it. When he complains about "reverse racism," he's strumming the ever present deep racism of the right-wing who need to play the role of Victims of Multiculturalism. What he won't say is this: "We already got a nigger for a president, do we need a spic on the Supreme Court shoving liberalism down our throats as well?"

Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong.

Unlike vampires, Republicans do not shrivel and burn up in the light of day. They thrive on the glare of camera light as scores of media fucks race to write down their every word and transmit it everywhere. So the right-wingers have already heard the subliminal warning of Mr. Gingrich and are mobilizing since wedge issues are all they have left. And trust me, it will get uglier as the process gets to the hearing stage.

And while I wonder if Ms. Sotomayor truly understood how her life is no longer hers (until at least she's presumably confirmed), I have to say I'm lovin' it. I want to see the squirming and whining from the Republican party as they slowly insert their foot into their mouths, whether it's the feckless assholes at "The New Republic" or mandroid Mitt Romney or idiot Mike Huckabee calling her "Maria" (klassy!) I want to see them implode and the media run interference from them, because that's what they do.

Good luck, Ms. Sotomayor.

As you already well know, one of the tasks of the media is to create a phony controversy and then spend an inordinate amount of time discussing it so that it has a life of its own. When that happens, the media convinces itself that there really was something there all along.

Witness the Great Wise Latina Comment Controversy of 2009.

Unlike just about everyone on television, I don't feel my ignorance of who Sonia Sotomayor is qualifies me to describe her judicial philosophy or what's in her head. Of course, that is the job of such stalwart assholes like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Tom Tancredo (R-shithead) of Colorado. It is also the job of our Media Glitterati to transmit this bullshit and poison the airwaves so that ordinary people (for whom a Supreme Court justice nominee is an abstract thing) suddenly feel compelled to weigh in.

Guess what, folks? Your opinion doesn't matter, and if you think the Great Wise Latina Comment Controversy changes that, it doesn't. You're making the same mistake as the aforementioned idiots and really just about every other person who's going to be on that confirmation committee: suddenly everyone is a lawyer, everyone has total command of the law and most importantly, everyone knows what Ms. Sotomayor is thinking.

Unfortunately, those who really take this seriously (because a justice of the Supreme Court is a justice for life) are getting drowned out in the noise. Let's forget reasonable interest on how she might vote and call her a racist. (Honestly, if the GOP wants to cement its anti-everybody message, continue to vomit your shit, Limbaugh, Gingrich and Tancredo. Please, don't stop.) Let's parse and reparse her words until we think we know exactly what she meant. Let's believe the crawl on CNN throwing out meaningless factoids about her. In fact, let's skip the confirmation hearings altogether and vote like on "American Idol."

Naturally, the pussy faction of the GOP (the actual elected officials) are predictably tepid in their disdain for their leaders Limbaugh and Gingrich. I suppose it's okay (matching their Christian values) to call someone a racist, something otherwise known as bearing false witness against your neighbor. But then again, that would take out the sport of this phony controversy, wouldn't it?